Dance General Stuart's Reel 2428

(or “The New Way of Gildon”)

The identity of “General Stuart” has long been a mystery to modern Scottish country dancers, but with the assistance of some fellow historians and antiquarians, a possible solution can be offered.

Our “general” was very probably David Stewart of Kynachan or Kynnachaan, a prominent Perthshire Jacobite, closely related to the other Stewart families of Atholl. He ultimately became a folk hero of the region and has been commemorated in song. When Prince Charles Edward arrived in Atholl in August of 1745, the Laird of Kynachan joined the prince’s army as a lieutenant colonel in Lord Nairne’s Atholl Brigade. At Culloden the following April, Kynachan fought bravely but was severely wounded. He was carried from the battlefield to th barn at old Leamoch which sheltered thirty-two Jacobite wounded. The day after the battle, a day of countless atrocities, the barn was burnt to the ground by the blood-thirsty Hanoverian troops and all within, including Kynachan, perished. There is another story about the death of Kynachan, that he survived Culloden and took refuge on the Braes of Leny near Callander in Perthshire. On 19 July, 1746, it is suggested, he and six companions were captured after a fight in which Kynachan was wounded. He was taken under guard to Stirling Castle where he died. Whatever his end, “General” Stewart was a hero of the '45.

David Stewart’s antecedents had been bold in the Jacobite cause. His grandfather, Patrick Steuart of Ballechin, was bailie or chamberlain for John, 1st Marquess of Atholl, and it was he who held Blair Castle in the name of James VII (II) for James Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, in the Rising of 1689.

Patrick’s son, John, known as Iain Mor Chainneachain, to whom an aged kinsman bequeathed the estate of Kynachan, became deeply involved in the Rising of 1715. He was among those besieged in the Citadel at Leith by the Royal Army under John, 2nd Duke of Argyll, and it was he who, when called upon to surrender, replied to Argyll: “As to surrendering, they laughed at it; and as for bristling cannon and assaulting them, they were ready for him; that they would neither take nor give any quarter with him; and if he thought he was able to force them, he might try his hand.”

David Stewart of Kynachan’s daughter, Jessie, married Robert Stewart of Garth and one of their sons was General David Stewart of Garth, long an officer in the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch and a military historian whose Sketches of the Highlanders and the Highland Regiments was published in 1826. He was, without doubt, named for his illustrious grandfather.

Now another interesting clue comes to light. The lands of these Stewarts of Kynachan and Garth lie to the southwest of Blair Atholl toward Fortingall and Aberfeldy and between Loch Tummel and Strathtay. The mansion house of Ballechin lay just west of Logierait at the mouth of Strathtay. Garth Castle is further west, at the foot of Strath Appin near Coshieville. Kynachan House, one of the many houses in the district to have been held by the troops of the Duke of Cumberland before Culloden, was at the head of Loch Tummel. In 1739 General George Wade whose roads were opening up the Highlands to the rest of the world and also to penetration by the Hanoverian army signed a contract with John Stewart of Kynachan. “WHEREAS it is agreed between Lieut. Genl. George Wade for an on account of HIs Majesty, and John Stewart of Canagan, Esq. That he the said John Stewart, shall build a Stone bridge strengthened with a double Arch over the Riber Tumble, whithin less than a mile West of the house of the said Canagan, which Bridge is to have an Arch of at least forty two foot between the landstools – or more if the breadth of the River shall require an Arch of a larger dimension. It is likewise to be twelve foot in breadth including the Pavement, and at least one foot broad, and to be coped with good flagstones. The whole to be of good Materials and well wrought, and to have an access to the same, extending so far on both sides of the land, as to render it easily passable for Wheel Carriages or Canon (sic), and likewise to make sufficient Buttments that shall confine the water to pass under the Arch, that in extraordinary Floods it may not damage or undermine the foundations. For which Bridge and all Materials, and charges relating thereto, the said Lieut. General George Wade is to pay to the said John Stewart the sum of two hundred pounds sterling, Viz: Fifty pounds on the signing of this contract, and One hundred and fifty Pounds as soon as the work is compleated, which he promises to finish before the last day of October next ensuing, and the said John Stewart does oblige himself to give sufficient security before the last Payment is made to uphold the said Bridge at his own expense for the space of twenty years from the date hereof, whereto we have interchangeably set our hands this twenty fifth day of July 1730.
   Witness John Stewart
   Witness Donald McDonald”

This humpbacked bridge built by John Stewart of Kynachan stood on the line of Wade’s military road that led from Perth to Dalnacardoch in Glen Garry and on to Inverness. The road veered north from Aberfeldy on the Tay and at Coshieville turned up Strath Appin past Garth Castle toward the head of Loch Tummel and the site of the bridge across the Tummel. From an escarpment beyond Garth Castle there loomed down on this new road an Iron Age fort: Dun Geal. The second title to the dance is “The New Way of Gildon” – the new road of Dun Geal.

The manuscript in which “General Stuart’s Reel” appears is the Castle Menzies Mss. of 1749, preserved in the Sandeman Library at Perth. Once the home of the Chief of the Menzies, the now ruined Castle Menzies lies deep in Stewart Strathtay, near Weem, a mile west of Aberfeldy, on the Wade road. It was at the inn at Weem that General Wade lived while supervising the construction of his local road and bridges.

It should be noted that there are variations of the spelling of this family name: Stewart, Steuart and Stuart, the latter of French origin, there being no letter “W” in the French alphabet.

It all seems to come together and perhaps at long last we have an answer to “Who was General Stuart?”